I haven’t really spent a lot of time on Scribd, the massive online digital documents library featuring all kinds of user-uploaded stuff. Mostly, it’s known as a place to score free ebooks.

But recently, I was looking for a set of free printable Halloween paper dolls we had featured on Cool Mom Picks a while back, and saw that’s where the designer had moved them. Instantly, I was hooked.

Scribd is not necessarily super well-curated when you’re searching–think of it a little like Slideshare only for any kind of documents at all: articles, comics, ebooks, magazines, presentations and more. A search for Halloween Printables yields hundreds of hits for everything from masks to activity sheets, to these cute Halloween Printables from favorite shop Anders Ruff and a clever printable Halloween door sign that feels like an eye chart.

free halloween printable by anders ruff on scribd | cool mom tech

Halloween door poster printable | cool mom tech

You can then read it offline as a PDF, edit it with Acrobat, email it, or download and save. Or use the free Scribd mobile app for iOS or Android and do it all on the go.

Also, because it’s a social media site, if you log in via Facebook you get an automatic social feed. I was surprised to see so many friends of mine there, publishing their own documents and sharing ebooks and articles they’re liking.

Now here’s the thing: In order to get everything for free, simply upload your own documents, which flags that you’re a participant in the community. Otherwise you do need to pay $9/month for complete access to all documents, or $4/month for a year.

(Not really bad at all if you’re going to use it to find freebies in the first place, but hey, free is better. Upload a document!)

Warning: you could get lost in here for a few hours. Trust me. –Liz

Find free printables, ebooks and more with Scribd